The Canonical team has released Ubuntu 12.04 - a new long term support release. The biggest new feature is the HUD, an addition to the traditional application menu system, where you can search for the actions you want to perform instead of having to hunt for them in menus. Unity overall has been improved, and I must say that even though this new release is simply not at all ready for Asus ZenBooks, Unity runs perfectly well on it, and to my own shock and surprise, I'm slowly warming up to it. It's starting to make sense, it looks nice (especially after some custom tweaking), has become a lot more configurable, and it's really, really, really fast.

I've been "stuck" on 11.04 / gnome 2.x terrified of upgrading but this one might persuade me.

I don't understand why you're "stuck" on Ubuntu! Linux is about choice and there's plenty of it available in the Linux world. My personal recommendation is to ditch Ubuntu, as many have, in favor of Linux Mint. Wait a few weeks for 'Maya', or Linux Mint 13 to make it's debut. Trust me, it will get right everything Canonical gets wrong. Linux Mint supports the MATE desktop environment, which just updated to a very stable 1.2 release. MATE is a fork of Gnome 2.x that is very stable and can coexist peacefully with Gnome 3.x libraries. If you never want to be "stuck" again, then go a step further and choose Linux Mint Debian edition. I actually just switched back to Linux Mint after a 3.5 year stint with Sabayon. Since I prefer rolling distributions, Mint's Debian Edition with MATE desktop is just what the doctor ordered. Of course all the other desktops are well represented too, including Mint's innovative Cinnamon shell, which is a sane fork of Gnome 3.x. The Debian Edition is a rolling release which means it's always up to date with the latest packages and programs. Unlike Ubuntu (and Mint's own Ubuntu derived main edition) which is frozen for six months until the next release.

Yep, Ubuntu Studio 11.10 was the last straw before I jumped to Mint 12, I can't be happier, it was literally an upgrade away. Mint 12 + Mate desktop = the way Desktop Linux should be, no shoehorning a tablet UI onto the desktop which seems to be the new fad for every OS...